Hard panned confections are enjoyed by consumers for the multisensory consuming experience that they provide. That is, the coating typically provides a different texture and flavor than the underlying confection, and such confections can be provided in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Providing such confections in the vast array of possible combinations of shapes, tastes, textures and colors can be challenging. Producing vibrant colors in particular can be difficult, especially when the underlying confection is colored, and even more so when differently colored, than the overlying coating.
Conventionally, titanium dioxide has been utilized in hard panned coatings in order to provide an opaque substrate on which to apply colored layers of the panned coating. The opacity provided to a precoat of titanium dioxide allows the colored layers applied thereover to exhibit a more true color. Other white materials may not provide the same level of opacifying as titanium dioxide and colored layers applied over, e.g., calcium carbonate, are not expected to exhibit the same true color as when the same colored layer(s) is applied over a precoat comprising titanium dioxide.
Although titanium dioxide has enjoyed consumer acceptance for a number of years, alternatives are yet desired that would either be perceived by consumers as being more naturally derived, and/or provide cost savings either in the form of raw materials, or manufacturing efficiencies. Any such alternatives would desirably provide the coating of the hard panned confection with a CIELAB color difference (delta E, or “ΔE”)) of 10 or less compared to a coating on the same confection prepared with titanium dioxide. Another predictor of the commercial acceptance, and desirably success, of any such coating would be its ability to exhibit an L*, a* and/or b* within 5% of that of the same coating prepared with titanium dioxide.